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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26622355">Mind Some Company?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyZombie/pseuds/ShyZombie'>ShyZombie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Amnesia, Existential Crisis, Gen, Roxas is Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Vanitas is Sora</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:29:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,361</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26622355</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyZombie/pseuds/ShyZombie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"I thought..."</p><p>Vanitas blinked heavily, and swallowed.</p><p>"I really thought I was Sora."</p><p>-----</p><p>Ventus is retrieved and brought to Yen Sid’s tower, where Sora is asked to return Ven's heart in order to wake him up. </p><p>There are unexpected consequences.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Mind Some Company?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Mind some company?"</p><p>Vanitas didn't look up, but he didn't say no either.</p><p>Ventus sat beside him at the edge of Yen Sid’s island, and let his gaze drift across the misted ether. It reminded him a bit, in a floaty sort of way, of the Land of Departure.</p><p>Vanitas was hunched over his knees, chin cupped in one palm. The only move he made was to scrunch his brow.</p><p>"Hey Ven?"</p><p>Ven turned to him.</p><p>"Yeah?"</p><p>"How do you think Roxas was born? Without, you know-"</p><p>Vanitas gestured to all of himself. Ven Knew what he meant.</p><p>
  <em>Right, Vanitas had been long gone by then.</em>
</p><p>"I think..."</p><p>Ven had been very confused when he woke up, but everyone had taken their turn to translate for him at least once between shouting and debating in what might as well have been another language.</p><p> (It only helped a little that none of the strange words used sounded as unfamiliar as they probably should.)</p><p>Ven had had to answer a lot of questions. He'd also gathered a bit about Roxas during that time.</p><p>Roxas was a nobody. That meant he was supposedly created from Sora's empty shell. However, things had been made especially confusing by the fact Sora had never seemed to notice his body was missing. Either Sora's heart, or the heart that had been bound to Sora’s body, had barely been separated from it when it's physical half had been called back by the pink girl's (Kairi's) light, or Sora had just been a heartless that broke all the rules. (There was a small precedent for that with Xehanort, but Ven thought it more likely that Xehanort broke all rules period.)</p><p>There was also the thing where Roxas had looked like Ven, not Sora. Yet Roxas couldn't have been made from Ven’s body either, could he? Ven had been asleep. So by that logic, Sora hadn't lost his body, and Roxas had to have been a heart. Vanitas was the one with Sora's memories, so specifically, that left his heart. Or something of it.</p><p>What was Roxas, then? Was he even a nobody? A heartless? Or...</p><p>Ven shook his head lightly. It was starting to hurt.</p><p>No, that was enough. The last thing he needed was a <em>second</em> identity crisis on his hands.</p><p>Ven took a deep breath, and tried to gather his thoughts.</p><p>"…We weren't separated into dark and light when Sora- you- we stabbed ourselves. But our hearts- I think my heart separated from Sora's body, while yours stayed."</p><p>Vanitas snorted and raised a slanted eyebrow.</p><p>"<em>Hearts</em>?"</p><p>The way he looked at him was as of he was trying to determine whether he was being purposefully misleading or was just an idiot.</p><p>"In case you forgot, I <strong>am</strong> darkness. I don't have my own heart, and neither should you."</p><p>"We do when we're together. Now, even when we're apart, I think. I mean, if a nobody can grow a heart from nothing, then we both had a head start."</p><p>Vanitas opened his mouth- then closed it into a scowl. Ven took the opening.</p><p>"We've both grown since then, Vanitas. Sora shared his light, and his darkness, filled in the empty spaces between. He..."</p><p>Ventus's smile faded, but he didn't stop, couldn't.</p><p>"... He was our second chance."</p><p>Vanitas was unmoved.</p><p>"Okay, fine,"</p><p>Ventus sighed.</p><p>"Tell me you don't care about Kairi or Riku, and then I'll believe you haven't changed."</p><p>Vanitas' lips tightened.</p><p>"That's not fair. You know I could never say something like that."</p><p>"See? That's what I call 'love'."</p><p>Vanitas glared.</p><p>"Or selfishness. Maybe I just want to steal them from Sora, along with everything else. Did you think of that?"</p><p>"Do <em>you</em> really believe that?"</p><p>Vanitas looked away, and slumped. Something that held him up seemed to break.</p><p>"Ventus."</p><p>"Yeah?"</p><p>"I thought..."</p><p>Vanitas blinked heavily, and swallowed.</p><p>"I really thought I was Sora."</p><p>There it was.</p><p>"How much do you remember?"</p><p>"Which part?"</p><p>Ventus looked out and ahead, to where the sky met the glittering horizon. This time, it reminded him of something different. Another home, maybe.</p><p>"The Sora part."</p><p>"All of it. I think. I mean, how would I know? But I can see the islands, my friends, my... my mom..."</p><p>The first tear slid down his cheek.</p><p>"...Sora's mom, I mean."</p><p>And he laughed, a rusted sound.</p><p>"I'm just what killed her son, right?"</p><p>Ventus' eyes softened, and he reached for his shoulder.</p><p>"Sora..."</p><p>Something flashed in his yellow eyes.</p><p>"Don't touch me!"</p><p>Ventus jerked back, and Vanitas inhaled raggedly.</p><p>"...Sorry."</p><p>There was a silence.</p><p>"I could blame you, you know. I thought about it. When he asked if we were hurt, you were the one who answered."</p><p>Vanitas flexed a gloved hand.</p><p>"I just wanted to sleep."</p><p>"I remember,"</p><p>Said Ven,</p><p>"But by then we were already connected with Sora's heart. Following that light felt like coming home. We couldn't have known."</p><p>Vanitas scratched at his hair and sighed.</p><p>"I know, I know, I don't know what's wrong with me."</p><p>In the end, they were just a bunch of stupid kids who made stupid choices.</p><p>"No, I do know what's wrong. All these things are swirling inside of me, things I don't understand, feelings. I don't know where they're coming from."</p><p>"How much do you remember of... before Sora?"</p><p>"Darkness, mostly."</p><p>A shiver clenched the boy's spine.</p><p>"Darkness and pain. Jealousy too. Nothing that makes sense."</p><p>"...I think I know what you mean."</p><p>Ventus eyed him carefully.</p><p>"Well, not exactly, but I don't remember much about Sora specifically. Just... a warmth, and a sense of peace."</p><p>It wasn't the whole truth, because he remembered that he'd dreamt, waded, or maybe fell through the honey of lazy afternoons. Colours in the shapes of Terra and Aqua had shimmered from brown to red and blue to something he couldn't quite make out. He'd felt like he'd forgotten something then, and now, that hole it left behind was the only thing remembered, like faces cut out of a photo. To linger on them left a bittersweet taste in his mouth.</p><p>When they called him Roxas, the feeling was the same.</p><p>If a heart needed darkness to be real, and Roxas was Sora's darkness, maybe Roxas was a part of him after all.</p><p>After all, he hadn't been the original Ventus, the Ventus he'd been at Daybreak before Xehanort ripped him in two, for a long, long time. If Sora was dead, then by all rights so was he. But then, at four years old Sora hadn't really had a chance to live either.</p><p>His thoughts were interrupted by a snort.</p><p>"But you remember being Ventus, huh? What a pair."</p><p>"For what it's worth, I think Sora would forgive you."</p><p>"Sora was a four year old."</p><p>"I'm not so sure. It's not like Sora just... stopped being Sora that day. His memory survived in you, and so did his light."</p><p>And darkness.</p><p>Ventus pressed his hand to his heart. A face so like his flashed before his eyes, but angrier.</p><p>"There's a lot I don't understand, but what I know, without a doubt, is only we can decide who we want to be."</p><p>Vanitas narrowed his eyes.</p><p>"And what if all anyone liked about me came from you?"</p><p>Ventus shook his head.</p><p>"When I look at you, I don't see a bad person. I don't think you're friends will be so easily fooled either. Everyone was a little startled, but they're mostly just worried. I can tell they really care about you."</p><p>"About Sora you mean."</p><p>Ventus pointed to Vanitas' chest.</p><p>"About the boy they've saved the world countless times over, and who never ran away, no matter how tough things got. The one who didn't take a ten-year-long nap. That, Vanitas, was all you."</p><p>Ventus stood and extended his hand.</p><p>"So, what do you say 'Sora'? Everyone's waiting."</p><p>Vanitas ran his eyes over the hand like it held some hidden message. After a heavy moment, he grabbed it.</p><p>Only then did he look up.</p><p>"...Do you think Donald could fix my hair with his magic? And maybe my eyes?"</p><p>Ventus smiled.</p><p>"Only one way to find out."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wrote this a year or two ago, so I can’t entirely remember if this makes sense anymore. It seemed to at the time. But then, that’s Kingdom Hearts.</p><p> <em>What I think I was going for:</em><br/> <br/>Basically, when both Ven and Vanitas took shelter in little Sora, Sora's heart either got booted out of his body and Ven and Van grew their own hearts like nobodies, or Sora's heart was split into light and dark halves to complete Ven and Vanitas. Ven went to sleep, while Van took control of Sora's body.<br/>When Sora stabbed himself, Ven's heart was released, leaving only Vanitas in his body. Ven’s heart became Roxas, who I guess was really more of an amnesiac heartless rather than a nobody. That, or, when Sora stabbed himself, Ven’s newly complete heart was split into light and darkness AGAIN. Roxas was the dark half, AKA originally Sora's darkness.</p><p>I know, right? People are just multiplying like cells now.</p><p>----------------------</p><p>I shortened Ven's exposision dump at the start, because it wrecked the flow. But if you really want to hurt your brain, here's the full thing:</p><p>  "Roxas was a nobody. That meant he was supposedly created from Sora's empty shell. However, things had made especially confusing by the fact Sora hadn't even seemed to notice his body was missing.</p><p>If Sora had managed to take his body back from Roxas when he returned to human form, and Roxas was Sora's body, than Roxas’ existence should have lasted twenty minutes at most. It followed that either the heart that had been bound to Sora’s body had barely been separated from it when it's physical half had been called back, or Sora had just been a heartless that broke all the rules. </p><p> Another disembodied heart bound to a heartless, or even two, shouldn't have been enough in itself to allow him to maintain his physical form. Kairi's light shouldn't have been either. When Vanitas and him had first been separated, it had been that Ven had drawn the lot with the body, while Vanitas himself had only been substantial as shadows, like the heartless. Until he'd merged with Sora's body, he'd only ever been as solid as he needed to be to kill something.</p><p>There was also the thing where Roxas had looked like Ven, not Sora. Yet Roxas couldn't have been made from Ven’s body either, could he? Ven had been asleep. So by that logic, Sora hadn't lost his body, and Roxas had to have been a heart. Vanitas was the one with Sora's memories, so specifically, that left his heart. Or something of it."</p></blockquote></div></div>
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